Nick Clegg's Lords reform plans to be watered down after Tories' anger over Hunt treatment

Nick Clegg’s plans to replace the House of Lords with an elected senate could
be watered down after the Conservative MPs expressed fury about Liberal
Democrat attacks on embattled Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Tory MPs are furious at the way Mr Clegg failed to back Mr Hunt in a Labour debate on whether he should be investigated for his handling of News Corporation’s bid for BSkyB and have decided to reek revenge on the deputy Prime Minister's plans for Lords reform.Photo: EPA

Officials are understood to be working on plans to ensure that any legislation recognises the primacy of the House of Commons over the second chamber, and that MPs and peers will not represent the same Parliamentary constituencies.

The changes, which will be presented to the Cabinet next week, have emerged after backbench Tory MPs spoke out against the reforms at a stormy meeting of the Conservatives 1922 committee of backbench MPs.

The Deputy Prime Minister wants to cut the number of peers from 900 to as few as 300 full-time members, 80 per cent of whom would be elected. He wants the first elections to be held in 2015, with members able to serve 15-year terms.

But Tory MPs are furious at the way Mr Clegg failed to back Mr Hunt in a Labour debate on whether he should be investigated for his handling of News Corporation’s bid for BSkyB and have decided to reek revenge on the plans.

Eleanor Laing MP was one of the MPs who spoke out against the reforms.

She said: “I have not voted against my party or its leader for 15 years. But many of us are now examining our consciences about how we can support these ill-thought through proposals to reform our whole parliamentary system.

“Why are we supposed to bend over backwards to support Nick Clegg’s over something that only matters to Lib Dems when his party cannot support a fellow minister who has done nothing wrong?”

Under the planned changes the Bill, which will be presented to the Cabinet on June 26, is now being reworked so that it makes clear that the Commons will always have precedence over any elected Second Chamber.

It will also change the way that peers or senators are elected, so that they will represent regions rather than constituencies, to remove the chance of conflict between peers and MPs when representing local people.

The Government is already braced for trouble from the reforms. In April, at least three Conservative ministerial adies threatened to resign if Lords reform went ahead.

Prime Minister David Cameron was also warned to expect “off the scale” rebellions over the plans. Tory MPs are hoping that Mr Cameron might order a referendum on the plans, which they hope will demonstrate public apathy for the reforms.